


The Serpent in the Garden

by only_more_love



Series: Endgame Responses [21]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Don’t copy to another site, Jealousy, M/M, POV Steve Rogers, Pining, Poetry, background Tony Stark/Pepper Potts - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-27
Updated: 2019-08-27
Packaged: 2020-10-01 21:57:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20418356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/only_more_love/pseuds/only_more_love
Summary: Envy is insidious.A poem responding to this prompt: things you didn’t say at all.[Takes place during the Avengers: Endgame scene in which Tony returns to Earth, and Steve realizes Tony is alive.]





	The Serpent in the Garden

For weeks   
the sun tumbled   
and the sun scaled the sky   
without fail   
despite my failures.

I dreamt  
without sleeping  
and tasted only ash and regret;  
choked my eyes   
and saw only the precise   
angles of light that shine  
from the corners of your eyes   
when you smile.

While I am still learning  
to crawl bloody-kneed   
in a world without you,  
impossibly,  
here you are   
again earth-bound,  
manacled by gravity   
like the rest of us. 

I run because   
you need me.  
What a precious thing  
it is to be needed.

(A lie:  
I run because  
I need you.)

You never needed me  
before.

Use me now.  
Make me  
(unmake me)  
your crutch.

Your arm  
is a twig  
in the starved clutch  
of my hand.  
Your back   
too slight.

They made me a symbol  
when I am still just a man.

Men want;  
men need;

men weep;  
men bleed.

Men carry   
light  
darkness  
both. 

If I am your crutch   
she is your home.

Her arms enfold you  
as mine have never done.   
She touches you   
with ease,  
sure of her welcome.   
This is the difference  
between a crutch   
and a home.

The serpent sleeping  
inside me w  
a  
k  
e  
s—

(In every garden  
lives a serpent.   
Always.)

—its fangs d  
r  
i  
p  
poison.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, maybe it’s time for some fluff and smut next. ;)
> 
> Thanks for reading. <3 Comments and kudos are treasured and replied to.
> 
> You can find me on [Tumblr](https://onlymorelove.tumblr.com). On Discord, I'm onlymorelove#8488.


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